Join the Pool Party in the Final Day of Shroud of the Avatar’s Release 4 Weekend!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

It has been an extremely successful Release 4 weekend, with thousands of backers logging in to play the new content. Release 4 includes the first iteration of our combat system (auto swing with equipped weapon), the Overworld Map navigation system, 10 scenes to explore (including towns, wilderness, caves, and dungeons), quests, loot, resource gathering for crafting (and more recipes), player housing in multiplayer mode, swimming, Mac/Linux patching, and multiplayer performance enhancements!

There was a pretty crazy “pool party” yesterday afternoon and into the night! Here you can see Lord British contemplating whether he should join:

 

Ah, the temptation was too much for Lord British to resist:

The pool party is probably still going on, so log into the game and join the fun!

SotA community member, The Mad Hermit, created an awesome walkthru video, Guide To Pre Alpha R4, highlighting many of the new combat and harvesting features, and other game enhancements. It’s an absolute “must see”, so take a few minutes, crank the video quality up to HD, and let The Mad Hermit give you the grand tour of Release 4:

Thanks to all of you for the great feedback we’ve received on Release 4 since it launched Thursday morning. Based on that feedback, we’ve released 2 new versions during the weekend, and are now up to version 86. Outlined below are the Release 4 Patch Notes describing the various bug fixes and feature enhancements across all the platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux).

PC-v85; Mac-v10; Linux-v12

• Overworld now picks better paths based on tile types
• Red Sash Quest now works: Added new red sashes back to Enmar’s quest, Laurent’s merchant bundle, and the Red Sash loot bundle.
• Replaced old Skeleton Models with New Skeleton Models
• Added wand, staff 10% drop to skeletal mages
• Players should now land facing away from exit points 
• Cleaned up some performance issues caused by lighting gone crazy
• Sped up combat by halving cool down for Avatar attacks (from 2.0->1.0)
• Fixed some decoration items that were unable to be moved once placed
• Female avatar can now rotate in character creation
• NPC text barks should now appear again. 
• Increased cool down on Skeletal Mage attack (they were a bit too hard)
• Reduced hitpoints on all mages (they were a bit too hard)
• Fixed sorting issues with using a wand or staff when offhand item (shield, torch, etc.) is equipped
• No longer able to see edge of map in the water from Baron’s Frigate in Kingsport

PC-v86; Mac-v11; Linux-v13

• Entering a hex will now put you in an instance tied to that specific hex on the map versus sorting everyone into the same scene. In other words there will now be multiple instances of the forests, not just one.
• Entry and exit points for the clink should now work correctly
• Lich now does damage (and lots of it)
• Added sounds to some weapons and visual effects
• Adding a few more music triggers in various locations
• Humanoids (Satyrs, Skeletons, and Elves now 10% harder)
• Fixed issue that was causing players to fall through the ground when destroying crates & barrels
• Disabled flickering light script that was displaying incorrectly
• Fixed Ore and Cotton Nodes in Forest
• Fix sliding for female characters
• Fixed incorrect text on ore nodes (said “Harvest Wood” instead of “Harvest Ore”)
• Fixed ruins in forest LODs that was popping
• Fixed issue that was trapping players in Owls Nest (aka Red Sash Bandits)
• Lich loot revisited
• LOTS of music changes. Braemar is where the bards are…
• Memory work for Braemar and beyond
• Trees cleared from player lots should now also clear their collisions
• Myron properly flags when the player finishes his dialog. Myra only gives the player one key.
• NPCs no longer announce “excuse me” bump style barks when they are colliding with other NPCs, or when they are dead.
• Slash commands for party invite/uninivite
• Text directed to NPCs does not broadcast to the entire zone. And there was much rejoicing.
• You can no longer see edge of map in the water from Baron’s Frigate / Galleon
• NOTE: Player lots in Owlshead were reset with this patch

We need all your help with testing the new patches, putting more stress on our multiplayer servers, and testing the new game content, so please join us in playing Release 4.

Hurry and join us in playing Shroud of the Avatar while Release 4 access is open! If you have not backed the game yet, you will need to register and login at www.shroudoftheavatar.com, select the “Pledge or Send Gift!” button in the right side-bar, and purchase a pledge at the $45 Adventurer level or above. For a limited time, you can get the Adventurer pledge for only $25 with the Alienware Pledge Upgrade Coupon (see details below).

(click here for more complete instructions on downloading and playing Release 4)

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Alienware Sponsors $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon

Alienware’s powerful gaming rigs are a perfect match for Shroud of the Avatar! To show their support, Alienware is sponsoring $20 SotA Pledge Upgrade Coupons to members of their Alienware Arena community!

These coupons can be used to start a SotA pledge account (for new backers), or to add $20 to an existing pledge account. If, for example, you have a $90 Royal Artisan Pledge, you can use the Alienware coupon to bump you up to a $110 Virtual Collector Pledge.

Pretty sweet deal, right? So, hurry over to the Alienware Arena website and get your $20 Pledge Upgrade Coupon now!

[NOTE: Only one Alienware Pledge Upgrade Coupon can be used per account. Coupon does not apply to Add-On Store items]

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Only 8 Days Remain to Purchase/Upgrade/Gift Founder Pledges

Until the promotion ends on April 7th, 2014, Founder backers will be able to purchase and/or gift additional Founder pledges containing all the original Founder rewards, as well as upgrade any of their pledges at original Kickstarter prices. After April 7th, prices for upgrades, gifts, and purchases will increase to Benefactor prices and no new Founder pledges can be created. Don’t miss out!

Referral Bonus for Gifted Pledges!

Early Founders who wish to act as patrons to their family, friends, guildmates, or members of the SotA community, will also continue to receive the $25 Referral Bonus for every additional pledge they purchase as a gift for others. Not only are you helping out others to become Founders, but you are also growing your own pledge account by $25 every time you do! Win-win for everyone!

Community member, The Mad Hermit, has a great video walkthru explaining all this, called “How to Become A Founder Through ‘Gifting’“.  We highly recommend you check it out!

We’ve created the Player Marketplace area in the forums to help facilitate these transactions between our community members and we ask that you keep these transactions in that section.

Hurry and take advantage of this tremendous offer as there are only 8 days remaining until the Early Founder Pledge Promotion ends on April 7, 2014.

[NOTE: Any pledge payment plans started prior to April 8, 2014 will remain in effect at the original Early Founder price until that plan is completed or cancelled. Until we automate the process, you can send a request to support@portalarium.com to have your pledges merged.]

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